Interview: Summer of ’84 filmmakers RKSS discuss the real-life evil behind their new teen thriller

The summer of 1984 is cherished by genre fans, even by those not old enough to actually remember it. That one magnificent summer saw the debut of such iconic films as Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and The Karate Kid.

Alongside that stacked roster of blockbusters, something far more sinister was brewing during the early 80’s. With cities became increasingly violent and expensive, families continued relocating to the suburbs, where a more insidious evil was afoot. Nightly newscasts from that era were often filled with news of child kidnappings and serial killers prowling the suburbs, a stark reminder to many that evil doesn’t stop festering just because you now have an in-ground pool.

That dichotomy between childhood fantasy and the harsh realities of the real world form the basis for RKSS’ Summer of ’84, the return of the filmmaking trio responsible for the similarly 80’s obsessed Turbo Kid.

Summer of ’84 focuses on four teenage boys, Davey, Tommy, Woody, and Curtis, who are spending their summer playing Manhunt throughout their sleepy suburban town, while getting in as much bedroom binoculars action as possible. Davey (Graham Verchere), the young conspiracist of the group, becomes convinced that local neighbourhood cop Wayne Mackey (Mad Men‘s Rich Sommer) is responsible for a string of child abductions, which leads the group of friends on a series of increasingly dangerous excursions to try to prove Mackey’s guilt.

The Quebec filmmakers, made up of François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell, were aware that genre projects set in the 80’s are trendy right now (see: Stranger Things), but were careful to not to exploit the reverential pop culture nostalgia of that era.

“It would have been easy for us to put our favourite film from the 80’s poster behind one of the kids, but when I was growing up I don’t remember owning that many movie posters, it was not really a thing,” says Yoann-Karl Whissell. “I had a Samantha Fox poster,” he adds with a laugh.

“We don’t use the 80’s to be gimmicky or because it’s trending right now,” adds Simard. “Sure it helps, but if you see the movie you’ll see that every reference in the background — yeah, we have the obvious Gremlins or Star Wars references, but we prefer to put the story in front.”

For the trio, 1984 is less interesting as a pop culture touchstone than as a demarcation point when people started to realize they had been lulled into a false sense of security by living out in the suburbs.

“There was a switch in the US where the suburbs started to be less safe,” explains Yoann-Karl Whissell. “It was the end of the American Dream. Suddenly you had kids’ kidnappings in the news, there were stories about serial killers in the news, and they all lived in the suburbs. And it just felt that it made sense that we would explore that shift in time. It was never —  and we love the 80’s — it was never to use the 80’s as a gimmick.”

Three directors working in tandem is a rare occurrence, but as the trio explain, having them all on-set actually made the filming process much more straight-forward for the cast and crew.

“The three of us have been working together for more than 15 years,” says Yoann-Karl Whissell. “We share one brain. We love the same things, we think the same things. We lived together for 12 years. We’re best friends, so we really have a shorthand. On set we get very, very prepared, everything is storyboarded. But on set we separate. I’ll deal with the actors, François will be with the camera, Anouk will be with all the heads of the departments. One director would try to work with all this. We have that power to be able to split, and just concentrate.”

“We all still watch everything, and have the global mindset of the vision,” adds Anouk Whissell. “But we [each] have a speciality, just to make sure everyone knows who to go to, and the actors feel safe, because they have just one person really taking care of them.”

Much of the success of the film rests on the relationship between the four young teenage boys, which made casting quite a challenge: their relationship had to feel lived-in and believable.

“It took more than two months of casting, so it was a long process,” admits Yoann-Karl Whissell. “Our priority was to find our Davey, and as soon as we found him we built around him. Because out of the 22 days of shooting, he was there 22 days.”

“He has the whole movie on his shoulders, so he needs to be good, he needs to be believable,” says Simard. “We really wanted [the kids] to be friends in real life, so the chemistry could come across and the screen. And they did.”

While budgetary constraints meant the cast would have little time to bond before shooting began, the filmmakers had to think creatively to find ways for the four teenagers to get to know each other before the shoot.

“We wanted them to spend time together before filming,” says Anouk Whissell. “We didn’t have rehearsal time or anything, but we had a table read, and after we told them, “This weekend you’re going to hang out together.” Actually, they decided to do an escape room, which could have gone terribly wrong, but it went well.”

For their creepy cop neighbour, the trio settled on an unlikely choice in Rich Sommer, best known for his non-threatening role as Harry Crane on Mad Men. As Yoann-Karl Whissell explains it, it was Sommer’s often demure roles that made him perfect for the mysterious neighbour.

“The best example is John Wayne Gacy. His neighbours would hire him as a clown for their kids’ birthdays. To everybody that knew him he was inoffensive, and then suddenly they found his crawl space, full of bodies. Most serial killers blend in, they look like absolute normal people, and that’s what’s scary about it, that’s what’s terrifying about it, is how normal some of them are. Like, Ted Bundy had a wife and kid.”

Without delving into spoilers, the end of Summer of ’84 is about as bleak as it comes, wrapping up on a note that the directors all agree was integral to what they wanted to accomplish with the film.

“This is real life, there are real consequences,” says Yoann-Karl Whissell. “And not a lot of movies explore real consequences. You have kids, or even adults, living through very traumatic events, but by the end of the film, they’re OK. And life is not like that. A traumatic event will stay with you for a very, very long time. For us, it always needed to go that dark for it to work. It’s a metaphor of growing up, and growing up sucks.”

Summer of ’84 opens on Friday, August 3rd at Cinema du Parc. RKSS will be on-hand for a Q+A following the screenings on August 3rd and 4th – more info can be found here.